Chacos: Are we shattering traditional values when we listen to a book instead of reading it?

A hard-core bibliophile can often be identified as the traditional hero — a glasses-wearing, tea-drinking, avid reader who will defend soft light, quiet spaces, flipping pages, and underlining phrases until her last, dying breath. One hand holds a physical book while the other dog-ears corners of the pages that forever annotate a moment, a sentence, a feeling. A bookworm’s space is full of the written word, and there’s purpose and placement for each and every book on her shelf. This person can sometimes be viewed as an originalist, a dogmatic conservative who devours tomes via the page by comprehending, engaging with, and internalizing new information in this disciplined, conventional way. This type of reader is perceived to be under attack.

Getting your hands on a publication other than reading from words on paper has evolved in the past century. In 1932, the American Foundation for the Blind introduced the first audio recordings on vinyl records. This organization made it so more people could access the written word. In the 1960s, the “talking book” went from vinyl to cassette tape, and by the 1990s, cars were littered with compact discs that pumped volumes of thrilling crime novels or self-help books to people who couldn’t get enough of them. The beginning of the 21st century saw the rapid advancement of technology with tablets and ebooks, and in 2007, an e-commerce giant further revolutionized the audiobook industry when it popularized downloading books onto our phones. Within a few short years, we could access millions of titles and listen to a story immediately from anywhere on the planet. A different type of reader flourished and soon infiltrated the land.

Audiobookphiles are hard-core audiobook lovers who can often be identified as the antagonist. They are liberal, multitasking individuals who have the ability to digest story after story while exercising, cleaning, or commuting. Audiobook lovers are easy to spot in the wild because they often wear spandex and painstakingly remove trendy headphones as if being interrupted during the climax of a story most likely on the list of “banned books” from the public library. Audiobookphiles are sometimes viewed as pragmatists, devouring books by comprehending, engaging with, and internalizing new information in this equally disciplined but unconventional way. Audiobookphiles make some of us feel uncomfortable because they erode our historical understanding that books were originally intended to be read on a page.

Peeper-reading traditionalists are being harassed by those now enjoying literature in a rainbow of woke ways. This attack on tradition has become increasingly more radicalized as modern-day audiobooks continue to proliferate. In my recent book club meeting, I witnessed a mom choke back angry tears protecting her choice to listen to the book by saying, “You make me feel like I’m a cheating villain,” to unsympathetic traditionalists who believed books should only be read with sockets and eyeballs that were bestowed at birth. I could tell they didn’t think listening to a book counted as much as reading one because they walked out on her mid-sentence while she was trying to explain the difference between learning styles and the science of how the brain works. I’d like to think their temporal lobes didn’t register they were actively engaged in a live conversation.

Listening to books is an auditory learning style preferred for some readers because their brain is able to absorb, remember, and comprehend information better when information is delivered this way. Auditory learners enjoy listening to a story come to life and often thrive in environments when they have to process conversational language. A talented narrator has that special talent, and if you haven’t experienced an audiobook, I highly recommend downloading Lawrence Fishburne reading “The Autobiography of Malcolm X” or listen to “Dungeon Crawler Carl” to become bizarrely obsessed with the talking cat, Princess Donut. 

On the other hand, people that have strength in a visual learning style connect ideas and remember details more readily using this strategy. Reading stories on the page relies on the brain’s ability to create and retain mental imagery and will benefit visual learners that enjoy this type of comprehension best. Many of us still visualize Nurse Ratched’s wicker bag from Ken Kesey’s “One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest” and can imagine the real Anne Frank in “The Diary of a Young Girl” by the power of the author’s written words. Talented authors have that special talent, too.

Science can now measure that reading and listening to a book each offer distinct benefits to the brain and activate different cognitive pathways for comprehension, retention, and the development of language fluency; and there is no superior learning style. All language involves a complex network of interconnected regions, and how you “read” depends entirely on the specific learning goal you’re aiming to acquire. Bibliophiles and “audiobookphiles” are simply different in how they consume their literature. It’s time to cross the aisle and admit that they both have the same goal in the end. All bona fide book lovers only want to blab about their passion for the last book they devoured in a day and then share it with someone new. 

Genuine, die-hard book lovers could care less how anyone chooses to access a book as long as they can converse about it later. All other arguments are designed to distract us from the real villain in the story, and that is the force that controls what we write, what we listen to, and what we will ultimately have access to on our shelves for years to come. We’re fortunate to still have choice and agency with our books, but aren’t we shattering traditional values when we want to silence access to some but not others? 

Andrea Chacos lives in Carbondale, balancing work and happily raising three children with her husband. She strives to dodge curveballs life likes to throw with a bit of passion, humor and some flair.